The notion ‘knowledge based society’ is one of the focus of the actual discussion within the European social science and the European politics. It is a concept which apparently resumes the social transformation which are taking place in the modern society and which serves also for the analysis of these transformations. It offers at the same time a vision of the future which guide normatively the political actions. Nevertheless, the concept has not received a similar acceptation in the different linguistic areas competing with other notions like ‘information society’ or ‘network society’. This article has the objective to expose briefly the state of art of the German discussion about the ‘knowledge based society’.